By this point I’m sure you have heard what happened in Detroit between Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson. Quick overview is Manson bitched about Rob onstage and then Rob confronted him backstage, it then spilled over into Rob’s set where he told Marilyn Manson to f*** off many times during Zombie’s rendition of “School’s Out.” Here are some links were you can read all the details.
Trouble on the Twins tour via Loudwire
Fued on the Rob Zombie/Marilyn Manson tour via Revolver
The night before this happened it seemed there was already something brewing. Jerry Lesperance (a good friend of mine,) was at the show in Chicago at The All State Arena and had written a review of the show even before the infighting between these two became public knowledge. According to him something already seemed to be going down. Check out is full review.
For many years, the world of shock rock has had one fiery burning question: Who is the heir to Alice Coopers thrown; Marilyn Manson with is shocking stage antics or Rob Zombie and his monster Mayhem? Never before had these two toured together for a true side by side comparison. That hope came to a gloriously dark head as The Twins of Evil Tour rolled through the United States.
Originally Jonathan Davis (JDevil his dubstep alter ego) was supposed to open. He dropped off due to exhaustion, so in his place we got our good friend Sid Wilson (AKA DJ Starscream) opening up. If you go back to his interview here on Hangar 19 he went into his style of hardcore, jungle, dub, and spinning. Mask’s are must for him as we did not see his face under a glowing Starscream mask , with matching hoodie. A couple heavy dance mixes of Nine Inch Nails “Perfect Drug” and Nena’s “99 Luft Balloons.”
Next was onto the notorious Marilyn Manson. Good to see still by his side Twiggy Ramirez. As he has been since he came back he has taken over the rotating guitar spot. (Side note: John 5 and Ginger Fish, former Manson band mates are now playing for Zombie) Manson opened his set with “Hey, Cruel World” off the new album Born Villian, then launching into anthems like “Disposable Teens,” “Mobscene,” “Dope Show” and more. He Had enough costume changes to make Cher cringe, virtually one for each song. In the middle of the set Manson announced the powers that be would not let him play a longer set but with middle finger raised he decried he would continue, then launching into “Slo Motion.” After an on stage make up lesson he wend into his version of “Personal Jesus.” This is where his set got very curious. At the end of the song Manson went off script with a laundry list of things to “Reach out and touch faith in” President Obama, society, schools, churches, and interestingly enough his old label Interscope Records, bitter much? The highlight of the set was his performance of “Coma White” as snow fell upon the crowd. The visual of him in a long brimmed black fedora singing such a sad song of loss with gentle snow falling created very visually artistic and stunning contrast. Then his performance just went down hill. Manson seemed sluggish, tired and is starting to grow bit of a paunch on his once lean frame. At one point he signaled to the side stage for water, then immediately knocked it out of the hands of his stage help. A podium with the shock logo of years past and nazi-esque guard tower likeness was brought out to “King Kill 33” for the band to launch into the title track of his seminal record “Antichrist Superstar.” He was lost during the first verse looking back at his drummer and over at Twiggy before picking up at the chorus. After this he stormed off stage, the podium was removed and the set was over. What?! Each show he had been ending with the crowd pleasing and giant hit “Beautiful People” Even his new drummer had come back out and was ready to play until the drum tech had to clue him in that Mr. Manson would not be returning. House lights were up and the crowd that was waiting finally were left wondering what happened.
Next up was the Maestro of Macabre Rob Zombie and his merry band of Manson escapee’s. Rob absolutely without a doubt showed what a true showman of the people he is. With a mammoth sized robot, flames and smoke the band launched into “Jesus Frankenstein,” the screens playing clips of the classic Frankenstein movies helped drive home who is King of the Hollywood monsters. The crowd erupted in fire next as Rob rolled right into hits like “Superbeast.” Afterwards Rob addressed the crowd on how lovely it was to see all the beautiful people in the crowd. A poke at what happened perhaps? The band launched into the hits like “Living Dead Girl,” “More Human Than Human,” along with new anthems “Sick Bubblegum” and riding a mechanical beast out for “Mars Needs Women.” Every change Rob and the band had they went to the crowd to get them going even more. The Band seemed lively, happy and excited to be there. The highlight of the entire evening was when Rob stopped the crowd to take a step back in time. “A While back there was this tour called the War of the Gargantua’s Tour. A little band called White Zombie and another band called Pantera played and here’s a little song that’s left over..” before the riff for Thunderkiss ‘65 roared the crowd into delight, but this was no ordinary rendition. Before the last verse, Rob grabbed a spot light then proceeded to walk THROUGH the crowd while John 5 solo’d. Rob returned to the stage, finished the song, turning it into a medley with Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out.” The crowd who hasn’t seen it yet (it’s officially up on Youtube) got to see the new movie trailer for Rob’s next movie project “Lords of Salem.” This looks to be Rob’s masterpiece. Then riding a 12 foot high beast podium he closed the night with his crowd pleaser “Dragula.” Rob introduced the band, Piggy D, Gingerbread Man (Formerly Manson’s Ginger Fish) and John 5. This night in Chicago the crowd went home knowing who the better overall performer and showman was.
